The weather was spitting rain and would keep doing so through the morning. It was muggy and kind of gross. Evan was staying in and Aaron was driving himself, so Rick dropped me off at the Ray Road Front Stand. At least I had a shooting house to keep me clear from the light rain.
I had about an hour until shooting light. Sitting in the box blind, it was pretty nice. Right at daylight, I could see a few does come in. They milled around a bit before a small buck came in.
I had to get a new phone when I cooked my old one in my dry bag while kayaking. The new phone is pretty good, but the pictures of the deer weren't as good as the pixel, whether through the binos or not. I'll have a chance to try later in the week when there is more light.
The deer spent the morning milling around. The does were really being harassed by the bucks, at least at first. Eventually they seemed to give up and just feed.
All the deer left about an hour before the end of the morning hunt. One small spike did come in far off down the 2-track, but he never came into the corn.
Eventually I texted Rick and he said to meet back by the gate. Don had shot a boar hog, but he wasn't confident in the shot and they hadn't looked for it yet.
Back at the lodge we had breakfast. Don and Rick went to look for Don's hog and found it about 60 yards into the woods. The shot may have been a bit far back, but it did work.
We had some down time at the lodge before going out for the afternoon. Rain was over, but it was still muggy and somewhat uncomfortable.
Afternoon came and Rick took most of us out while Aaron drove himself to his spot. I'm not exactly sure where I was, but it was a big comfortable tripod stand overlooking a low spot. I wasn't in the stand too long when a small 4-point came out. It fed for a while before running away; I was hoping something else was coming out, but nothing else did. A crow screamed nearby.
I spent the time letting my mind wander. Temperatures were nice, but it was still muggy and there was a bit of mist from time to time. As it got dark, deer started to come in and go out. First it was a doe, followed by a small buck. Then came several does and a few more bucks. None of the bucks were huge, but they were headed in the right direction size-wise.
At one point the mosquitoes started to come in. It reminded me of my bear hunt a few weeks previous where my Thermacell quit while I was watching my bear. With such a short amount of time left in the evening, I didn't bother turning it on. Exactly what is the evolutionary need for mosquitoes?
As it started to get dark there were several deer on the corn. While I was in an open field, the hole the deer were in got dark quickly. I didn't run out of shooting light so much as I ran out of enough light to judge antlers.
I was also nursing an increasingly throbbing headache. My 50s have not been kind to me.
I got out of the stand and worked my way back to the gate. Rick was there almost immediately. Don had shot a pretty decent buck which was on the back.
Rick immediately started in about getting out of the stand too early and too noisily. I just wanted a bit of food and sleep. Don was all cleaned up back at the lodge playing cards with his wife. Lisa was just finishing cooking. I nursed my head.
Once food was ready I quickly ate and turned in. I had seen a zillion deer on my first day of hunting. There were no shooters, but I still had a few days. Despite the still pounding headache, I was hopeful.
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